When his father died unexpectedly, Austrel was sent to the capital, Port-au-Prince, as a 12-year old boy, to live with and work for the family of a wealthy businessman and auto dealership owner. He worked his way up from being a house servant to one of the businessman’s most trusted employees, as an accounts manager and bill collector.
It was while working for that family that Austrel met and fell in love with the pretty, pig-tailed girl who lived with and worked for the family next door. That “girl”, Marie-Denise Jules, would later become his wife on May 8, 1951. Together, they embarked on a life journey that would eventually produce eight children -- including twins that died in infancy -- five grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
As a young father with a growing family, Austrel worked at his primary job and as a bill collector for a hardware store and construction supply company. He also worked as a supervisor at a candy factory and owned and operated a small corner grocery store part-time.
He saved money by riding his bicycle to work in the mornings and driving his car to his afternoon and evening jobs. He used his earnings to send his children to good schools, to build a nice house for his family, and to help support extended family members in Terre-Neuve and Port-au-Prince.
He was a strict but often loving disciplinarian with a single-minded focus on education, which he considered a guaranteed ticket to anywhere one’s drive and determination led.
Austrel’s ambitions led him to seek more economic opportunities and greater political freedoms in the United States on June 10, 1967, his 40th birthday. He arrived to New York City on a Saturday and had a job as a dishwasher and busboy at a restaurant in Brooklyn by the following Wednesday. Twenty-two days later, he was working at the Consolidated Stamp Company, a rubber stamp factory in Spring Valley, New York, where other Haitian immigrants were also settling. His wife joined him in the U.S. a year later, and his five children joined them and their newly born “American” baby sister the following year. The family lived in Spring Valley until Austrel and Marie-Denise retired and moved to Florida in the early 1990s.
Austrel eventually left the stamp company to work at Chromalloy, a company that manufactures and repairs airplane gas and turbine engine components in Orangeburg, New York. He retired as a factory floor supervisor in 1992 after 20 years with the company.
As a retiree, he had no use for words such as “leisure” or “rest” and no interest in developing a post retirement hobby. Instead, he pursued modest entrepreneurial ventures and renovated the retirement house he’d built in Haiti over many years while working in the U.S.
The house was a perpetual work-in-progress and a labor of love. He was very proud of it wanted it to be his and Marie-Denise’s retirement home and the place where his children and grandchildren could spend holidays and vacations and stay tethered to their Haitian culture.
The house was destroyed in the 2010 earthquake. Although Austrel was deeply disappointed by the loss, the foundation of love for Haiti it symbolized, and that he held firm in his heart and instilled in his children, remained strong and intact. He now lives in the hearts of his children; his legacy strong and intact.
He will be remembered as a wonderful and fiercely proud father, grandfather, and great-grandfather, a loyal brother, a wise uncle, a supportive godfather, and a good friend. He will also be remembered as a man who, despite his serious work ethic, was not all business and enjoyed music and liked to dance. He will be missed as a gregarious and entertaining storyteller who loved to laugh and make others laugh.
Austrel loved to travel and learn about new places. He liked being around young people because they energized him and made him feel young too. He was adventurous and, to those who knew him well, utterly fearless. His “joie de vivre” at age 92 was as impressive as it was inspiring. He taught others important lessons about living life to the fullest, a gift for which his loved ones will be eternally grateful.
Austrel was predeceased by his wife, who died in 2008. He is survived by his beloved children, Marie-Maude Bagot, Serge Valbrun, Denise Valbrun, Michaelle Valbrun-Pope, Marjorie Valbrun, and Valda Valbrun; grandsons Kevin Timothee and Amani Pope, granddaughters Tarah Timothee, Chioke Pope, and Arianna Valbrun; sons-in-law, Jacques Bagot and Lindsey Pope; sister Leone Simon and brothers Lebrun Valbrun and Joacius Valbrun, and numerous nieces and nephews.
May his soul always rest in peace.
Visitation will be held on Tuesday, July 16, 2019 from 5:00 - 9:00 at the Kraeer-Fairchild Funeral Home and Cremation Center, 4061 North Federal Highway, Fort Lauderdale. Austrel's funeral service will commence on Wednesday, July 17, 2019 at 12:00 noon at St. Clement's Catholic Church, 2975 N. Andrews Ave, Wilton Manors, where his Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated.
Online tributes at: www.kraeerfairchild.com
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